A total of 513 blood specimens, predominantly from organ transplant recipients, human immunodeficiency virus-positive patients, and bone marrow transplant recipients, were tested for cytomegalovirus (CMV) by culture and pp65 antigenemia across four test sites. Peripheral blood leukocytes were examined by using both the Biotest CMV Brite and the Bartels/Argene CMV Antigenemia kits. A total of 10...

BACKGROUND Infection/reactivation of cytomegalovirus is a major cause of morbidity and mortality in immunocompromised transplant patients. It has already been observed in kidney and liver transplantation patients that cytomegalovirus disease is accompanied by significant increases in circulating CD8(+)CD38(+) T lymphocytes. There are no reports that study CD8(+)CD38(+) T lymphocytes to monitor/...

Nosocomial candidiasis is a major concern in tertiary care hospitals worldwide. This infection generally occurs in patients with degenerative and neoplastic diseases and is considered the fourth most frequent cause of bloodstream infections. Diagnosis of candidemia or hematogenous candidiasis has been problematic because clinical signs and symptoms are nonspecific, leading to delays in diagnosi...

OBJECTIVES To investigate which immune parameters, such as antibodies against HIV-1 specificities, or viral parameters, such as p24 antigenemia, are predictive of disease progression. STUDY DESIGN We performed studies on serum collected from individuals exhibiting two extremes of disease evolution--67 fast progressors (FP) and 182 nonprogressors (NP)--at their enrollment. After a 1- to 2-year...

In order to evaluate the LightCycler-based PCR (LC-PCR) as a diagnostic assay technique, a classical pp65 antigenemia assay and the commercially available COBAS Amplicor CMV Monitor (CACM) assay were compared to the LC-PCR assay for the detection and quantitation of cytomegalovirus (CMV) load in 404 parallel specimens of peripheral blood from 66 patients after solid organ transplantation. A goo...

We compared the Digene Hybrid Capture CMV DNA Assay version 2.0, the pp65 antigenemia assay, traditional tube culture, and shell vial culture for the detection of cytomegalovirus (CMV) viremia in several patient populations at three centers. Of 561 blood specimens collected from 402 patients, complete clinical and laboratory data were available for 489. Using consensus definitions for true posi...

Sequential specimens obtained from 87 multicenter AIDS cohort study participants were tested by three p24 antigen tests. They included a polyclonal enzyme immunoassay (EIA), a monoclonal EIA, and a monoclonal EIA after immune complex dissociation (ICD) of specimens. Subjects were grouped into two categories defined by real-time testing with the polyclonal EIA: 39 had become positive for p24 ant...

Literature review shows that hepatitis C infection may increase the risk of non-hodgkin lymphoma. Reactivation of hepatitis B infection has been reported in patients with hairy cell leukemia after chemotherapy and/or splenectomy. We present hepatitis B surface (HBs) antigenemia and concurrent hepatitis C virus (HCV) seropositivity in a case of hairy cell leukemia. Key Words: Hairy cell leukemi...

Aspergillus galactomannan antigenemia is an accepted tool for the diagnosis of invasive pulmonary aspergillosis (IPA) in neutropenic patients. Little known, however, about utility this biomarker to assess efficacy antifungal therapies. The pharmacokinetics (PK) and pharmacodynamics (PD) posaconazole treatment prophylaxis were investigated persistently rabbit model fumigatus IPA at doses between...